Greg Merle's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
Key
Official Position: Candidate addressed this issue directly by taking the Political Courage Test.
Inferred Position: Candidate refused to address this issue, but Vote Smart inferred this issue based on the candidate's public record, including statements, voting record, and special interest group endorsements.
Unknown Position: Candidate refused to address this issue, or we could not infer an answer for this candidate despite exhaustive research of their public record.
Additional Information: Click on this icon to reveal more information about this candidate's position, from their answers or Vote Smart's research.
Other or Expanded Principles & Legislative Priorities are entered exactly as candidates submit them. Vote Smart does not edit for misspelled words, punctuation or grammar.
Michigan Congressional Election 2010 Political Courage Test
| Pro-life | a) Do you consider yourself pro-choice or pro-life? | ||
| No | b) Should abortion be legal only within the first trimester of pregnancy? | ||
| No | c) Should abortion be legal when the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape? | ||
| No | d) Should abortion be legal when the life of the woman is endangered? | ||
| Yes | e) Should federal subsidies be prohibited from being used for abortion procedures? | ||
| No one is going to say that an abortion should not be granted to save a mother's life but I reject the premise that an abortion exception should be carved out to save the mother's. Advances in medical care make this argument a straw man. I haven't heard of a case in at least 30 years. | |||
1) SpendingIndicate what federal funding levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one number per category- you can use a number more than once.2) TaxesIndicate what federal tax levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one number per category- you can use a number more than once.
| Eliminate | a) Agriculture | ||
| Eliminate | b) Arts | ||
| Greatly Decrease | c) Defense | ||
| Greatly Increase | 1) Intelligence operations | ||
| Maintain Status | 2) Military hardware | ||
| Greatly Increase | 3) National missile defense | ||
| Greatly Increase | 4) Salary and benefits for active duty personnel | ||
| Greatly Increase | 5) Programs to improve troop retention rates | ||
| Maintain Status | 6) Research and development of new weapons | ||
| Greatly Decrease | d) Education | ||
| Greatly Decrease | e) Environment | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Homeland security | ||
| Eliminate | g) International aid | ||
| Greatly Decrease | h) Medical research | ||
| Eliminate | i) Scientific research | ||
| Greatly Decrease | j) Space exploration | ||
| Eliminate | k) United Nations | ||
| Greatly Decrease | l) Welfare | ||
| Greatly Increase | m) Other or expanded categories | ||
| Eliminate | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
| Eliminate | b) Capital gains taxes | ||
| Eliminate | c) Cigarette taxes | ||
| Eliminate | d) Corporate taxes | ||
| Eliminate | e) Gasoline taxes | ||
| Eliminate | f) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Eliminate | g) Income taxes (middle-income families) | ||
| Eliminate | h) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| Yes | 3) Do you support the elimination of the federal estate tax? | ||
| Yes | 4) Do you support requiring the federal budget to be balanced each year? | ||
| No | 5) Do you support using government funds in an effort to stimulate and improve the economy? | ||
| I firmly believe in revamping our entire taxing system that punishes hard work and risk taking. I am a in favor of the Fair Tax. | |||
| If "All Men are created Equal" then there should be no progressive tax system that favors one man over another. We should all be taxed at the same rate on all goods and services. I'm in favor of a simple consumption tax otherwise known as The Fair Tax. | |||
| The Fair Tax would be the biggest transfer of power from the government to the people since the Revolutionary War. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support privatizing elements of Social Security? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support reducing government regulations on the private sector? | ||
| No | c) Do you support increasing the federal minimum wage? | ||
| No | d) Do you support the ability of workers to unionize? | ||
| No | e) Do you support federal funding for job-training programs that retrain displaced workers? | ||
| f) Other or expanded principles | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support increasing the amount individuals are permitted to contribute to federal campaigns? | ||
| No | b) Should Congress regulate indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support removing all contribution limits on federal campaigns? | ||
| No | d) Should candidates for federal office be encouraged to meet voluntary spending limits? | ||
| No | e) Do you support giving the President the power of the line item veto for items concerning appropriations? | ||
| No | f) Do you support limiting the President's ability to define how legislation is applied through the use of signing statements? | ||
| While I'm in favor of the Free Market dictating how much a candidate spends on his or her campaign which is pretty much the case now, we are all beginning to see how this has resulted in pay to play policies and back scratching. Crony capitalism is a huge problem that disenfranchises voters. While my anti-big government side hates to say this, the only solution to this might be publicly funded campaigns where each candidate is given X amount of dollars to run their campaign. This would give third parties a level playing field and the electorate better representation | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support programs that provide prison inmates with vocational and job-related training and job-placement assistance when released? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support programs that provide prison inmates with substance abuse treatment? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support reduced prison sentences for non-violent offenders? | ||
| No | e) Do you support mandatory prison sentences for selling illegal drugs? | ||
| The addiction rate in 1902 was 1.2%. Fast forward over 100 years, 10s of billions of wasted dollars on a drug war and millions of lives ruined due to incarceration and guess what the addiction rate is in 2010? 1.2%. One can not legislate the human experience. It didn't work during prohibition and it certainly isn't going to work today. It's a fools errand. | |||
| No | a) Do you support federal education standards and testing requirements for K-12 students? | ||
| No | b) Do you support federal funding for universal pre-K programs? | ||
| No | c) Do you support federal funding for charter schools? | ||
| No | d) Do you support federal funding for K-12 school vouchers? | ||
| No | e) Do you support the federal government providing college students with financial aid? | ||
| Education should be a state and local issue, period. There is no one size fits all solution to education. This is not what the founding fathers envisioned. I do not want any federal involvement in education whatsoever. We could save 100 billion dollars a year out of the budget just by elimination the Dept of Education. | |||
| No | a) Do you support enacting environmental regulations aimed at reducing the effects of climate change? | ||
| No | b) Do you support international emissions targets aimed at reducing the effects of climate change? | ||
| No | c) Do you support allowing energy producers to trade carbon credits under a "cap and trade" system? | ||
| No | d) Do you support strengthening fuel efficiency standards on all gasoline and diesel-powered engines, including cars, trucks, and sport utility vehicles? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support domestic oil exploration in federally-protected areas? | ||
| No | f) Do you support federal funding for the development of alternative energy? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support the development of nuclear reactors? | ||
| The science has not been settled on global warming. I can say with absolute certainty that any change in the earth's climate is natural and there is not a thing we can do about it. This Cap and Trade scheme is a manifest lie manufactured by politicians to increase taxes and government control of our lives. Today they control our shower head pressure is, how much water we can have in our toilets and what kind of light bulbs we use, tomorrow it will be our thermostats. All for a lie. I am willing to debate anyone on this issue. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you believe that the Second Amendment guarantees the right of individual citizens to own guns? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support allowing individuals to carry concealed guns? | ||
| No | d) Do you support a ban on assault rifles? | ||
| I only support reasonable restrictions on gun purchases i.e age, sound mind, etc. | |||
| No | a) Do you support a publicly-administered health insurance option? | ||
| No | b) Do you support expanding access to health care through commercial health insurance reform? | ||
| Yes | c) Should the federal government expand eligibility for tax-free medical savings accounts? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support monetary limits on damages that can be collected in malpractice lawsuits? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support relaxing regulations on the importation of prescription drugs? | ||
| I can say with certainty that increased government involvement in health care will make the situation worse. There will be increased cost, there will be a decrease in quality of care and yes there will be death panels. There will have to be in order to keep costs down. There is no way around it. Obama was even quoted admitting as much in his analogy of giving someone a pain pill instead of an expensive surgery in the final years of ones life. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support decreasing the number of legal immigrants allowed into the country? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support establishing English as the official national language? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration laws by state and local police? | ||
| I'm of Puerto Rican descent and my first language is Spanish. I was dumped in an english only class and absorbed it like a sponge. Thank God I wasn't coddled with a feel good multicultural bi-lingual program. I am in full support of adopting an equivalent of the Mexican immigration policy. It is common sense that is not too common in our politically correct world. An immigrant to Mexico has to prove that he can sustain himself economically and not be a burden on the system. Also, repeat Mexico border transgressors can be imprisoned for 10 years in Mexico | |||
| No | a) Do you support United States military action in Afghanistan? | ||
| No | b) Do you support increasing military assistance for Afghanistan? | ||
| No | c) Do you support increasing economic development assistance for Afghanistan? | ||
| Yes | d) Should the United States continue to strike suspected terrorist targets in Pakistan? | ||
| No | e) Do you support granting aid to countries when it is in the security interests of the United States? | ||
| No | f) Should the United States support the creation of a Palestinian state? | ||
| No | g) Do you support increasing sanctions on Iran if it continues to defy United Nations mandates? | ||
| Yes | h) Do you support the withdrawal of United States troops from Iraq? | ||
| Yes | i) Do you support the United States' involvement in free trade agreements? | ||
| There is no simple solution to our trade problems. I do believe in the rule of reciprocity. Our foreign trade policy should mirror that of our trading partners. If a country engages in free trade, then we should do the same but if a country imposes barriers to trade then our policy should reflect theirs. | |||
| No | a) Should marriage only be between one man and one woman? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support allowing openly-gay men and women to serve in the United States military? | ||
| No | c) Do you support federal funding for embryonic stem cell research? | ||
| No | d) Should the federal government end affirmative action programs? | ||
| What is it about the "Pursuit of Happiness" that many politicians don't understand? How about we get the government out of the marriage business altogether. One should be able to enter into a contract with whomever they want. It's their life. You know, the world would be so much better off if everyone minded their own business. Since I am considered a minority, Affirmative Action questions my humanity and implies that I am stupid. No proud person of color can honestly be in favor of this insult. | |||
| If you want jobs to come back to our nation then we have to create an environment that is job friendly. I can't think of a more pro job initiative than the fair tax. Businesses from all around the world would set up shop here because they would be able to do their craft unmolested by government taxation. We would be a jobs Mecca. Do you want that? Then please join me in supporting the fair tax. We are meeting resistance from career politicians because it would strip them of an awful lot of power. |
Vote Smart does not permit the use of its name or programs in any campaign activity, including advertising, debates, and speeches.